OpenAI Bug Bounty Program: How to Earn up to $20,000 by Finding Vulnerabilities in AI Systems

OpenAI, one of the leading research organizations in artificial intelligence (AI), has launched a bug bounty program that rewards security researchers for finding and reporting vulnerabilities in its AI systems. The program, which is hosted on bugcrowd , offers payouts ranging from $200 to $20,000 depending on the severity and impact of the bug.

The bug bounty program covers all of OpenAI's public-facing products and services, such as its API, GPT-3, Codex, DALL-E, CLIP, and more. The program also includes some of its internal systems and infrastructure, such as its Kubernetes clusters, cloud storage buckets, and web applications.

According to the program's scope and policy, OpenAI is looking for bugs that could compromise the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of its AI systems or data. Some examples of eligible bugs are:

Remote code execution or command injection on OpenAI servers or containers

SQL injection or cross-site scripting on OpenAI web applications

Authentication bypass or privilege escalation on OpenAI accounts or services

Information disclosure or data leakage from OpenAI systems or databases

Denial-of-service or resource exhaustion on OpenAI systems or networks

Logic flaws or design weaknesses that could affect the functionality or security of OpenAI systems

OpenAI also encourages researchers to report any ethical, social, or legal issues that could arise from the misuse or abuse of its AI systems. For instance, researchers could report cases where OpenAI's AI models generate harmful, offensive, or misleading content, or where they violate the privacy or rights of individuals or groups.

The bug bounty program does not accept bugs that are out of scope, such as:

Theoretical or hypothetical vulnerabilities that require unrealistic assumptions or conditions

Known issues or vulnerabilities that are already reported or fixed by OpenAI or third parties

Issues that affect only outdated or unsupported versions of OpenAI's products or services

Issues that affect only the user's own account or device

Issues that are caused by user error or misconfiguration

Issues that are caused by third-party services or platforms that are not under OpenAI's control

To participate in the bug bounty program, researchers need to register on bugcrowd and follow the program's rules and guidelines. Researchers need to submit clear and detailed reports that include a proof-of-concept (PoC) code or demonstration video that shows how to exploit the bug. Researchers also need to respect the privacy and confidentiality of OpenAI and its users and refrain from accessing, modifying, deleting, or disclosing any data that is not their own.

We're launching the OpenAI Bug Bounty Program — earn cash awards for finding & responsibly reporting security vulnerabilities. https://t.co/p1I3ONzFJK

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) April 11, 2023

OpenAI will review and triage the reports within a reasonable time frame and communicate with the researchers throughout the process. OpenAI will also acknowledge and reward the researchers for their valid findings according to the program's payout table. The payout amount will depend on several factors, such as the severity level (critical, high, medium, low), the impact scope (global, regional, local), and the exploit difficulty (easy, moderate, hard).

The bug bounty program is part of OpenAI's efforts to ensure the safety and security of its AI systems and to foster a positive and collaborative relationship with the security community. By inviting external researchers to test and challenge its AI systems, OpenAI hopes to identify and fix any potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious actors. By rewarding researchers for their contributions, OpenAI hopes to incentivize more people to join the field of AI security and to promote a culture of responsible disclosure and ethical hacking.